local pagan populations but the Jewish residents, which allowed for the

creation of new cultural, religious, and social concepts.

Further north lay Syria. Syria consists of a series of north-south fertile
belts parallel to the coast. The northern coastal plain is narrow, confined by
the sea and the Lebanon Mountains. In Palestine the plain broadens into
the Judean and Samarian plateaus and contained strategic ports at Gaza,
Antioch, Tyre, and Sidon. Antioch was the most important city. Antioch
commanded the route to the Euphrates and to Asia Minor either by the
Gulf of Alexandretta or across the Amanus range via the Vailan Pass. The
Syrians were a conglomeration of different ethnic groups. This region had
seen in the past millennium the Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians,
Greeks, and Romans, although most were probably Assyrians. This region,
pagan, had traditionally been the jumping-off point for an invasion
of Palestine. During the New Testament Syria was the major Roman province,
which protected not only Palestine but Asia Minor from the Parthians
and Persians. The chief city was Antioch, a Greek city, which Peter and
Paul visited, converting many. From Antioch Paul traveled to Asia Minor
and Greece. These regions contained some Jewish communities but the
majority of the population was Greek.
The Greeks in these regions were descendents not only of Alexander’s
followers, but of much earlier arrivals. During the eighth century b.c.e.
a great migration and colonization movement from Greece occurred. Settling
mainly on the coastline, these colonists established cities that would
rival many cities in Greece itself: Ephesus, Melitus, and Rhodes. In addition
to the Greeks, Asia Minor had witnessed an invasion from the north
by the Gauls in the third century b.c.e. Their descendents, who had settled
in the northern region, were the Galatians, to whom Paul wrote his letter.
ASIA MINOR AND ITS HISTORY
Asia Minor was a group of ancient lands that had existed for nearly
a millennium. After the arrival of nomadic groups around 1000 b.c.e,
the fabric of the ancient eastern Mediterranean population was destroyed.
A group known as the Sea Peoples, a misnomer in an ancient Egyptian
text, had devastated Palestine and the east. A group that was destroyed
in Asia Minor was the kingdom of the Hittites. After their destruction a
series of kingdoms arose in Asia Minor, the Lydians, Lycians, and Carians.
After the dark ages in Greece following the fall of Mycenaean power to
the rise of the ancient Greek city states around 700 b.c.e, Greek colonists
arrived on the western shore of Asia Minor. Most of the cities on the coast
were now Greek. In the New Testament the Epistle to the Ephesians is
written to the descendents of these Greek colonists.
Around the year 270 b.c.e. another group arrived in Asia Minor, the
Gauls, who moved across from Europe. The Gauls ultimately carved out
their own kingdom, and again we find a letter to their descendents in
Daily Life of Geographical Groups in Palestine 29
Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Under the early empire Galatia was east of
Bithynia and included the ancient Paphlagonia, northeastern Phrygia, and
a part of western Cappadocia. The southern part, lying on both sides of
the river Halys, was Galatia proper.
Asia Minor was a land composed of several distinct geographical regions.
Along the coast near Syria was Cilicia. For the Romans, the acquisition
of Cilicia ended the major threat of the pirates during the end of the
republic, but unfortunately, the area produced brigands, attested throughout
the time of Rome’s control. The early province of Cilicia lay east of
Pamphylia and south of Cappadocia, reaching the south coast of Asia
Minor form Coracesium to Alexandria. The eastern portion of the province
was known as Campestris and the western as Montana or Aspers. For the
most part the coastal regions, at 300 to 1,500 feet, rise rapidly to over 6,000
feet in the mountains. At Seleucia the coastal road, running west to Anemurium
and Selinus, split into the mountain road to Claudiopolis, and then
to Laranda, where it ran into the east-west road to Derbe and Tyana. The
coastal road continued from Issus west to Adana and Tarsus. At Tarsus the
road split, one west and other north through the Cilician Gates to Podandus,
Faustinopolis, and Tyana. These regions would have been known by
Paul, as witnessed by his Letters to the Galatians, Colossians, and seen in
his travels in the Acts of Apostles to Pamphylia and Pisidia (13.4 –14.28).
In the north lay the Pontus region, with mountains over 3,000 feet high,
which is modern-day northern Turkey on the southern coast of the Black
Sea. The original province of Cappadocia adjoined Galatia and Pamphylia
toward the east. It too had four regions: Lycaonia, the most western next to
Isauria and Asia; Cappadocia proper, east of Lycaonia on both sides of the
river Haylys; Pontus, north of Cappadocia proper, to the Euxine or Black
Sea; and Armenia Minor, southeast of Pontus, lying along the upper Euphrates.
This entire region was rough, and with the mountains dividing and separating
the regions, individual cities were often cut off from communities
only a few miles away. These cities had numerous distinct communities.
Paul also visited the ancient land of Greece. In a series of letters we see
not only the message Paul imparted, but the trouble he had with the new
converts. His letter to the Thessalonians refers to the city of Thessalonica.
His letter to the Philippians refers to the city of Philippi, the ancient city
established by Philip of Macedon, Alexander the Great’s father. Finally
there was the letter to the Corinthians, referring to the city of Corinth.
In the New Testament, especially the letters of Paul indicate that Jews
were not the only groups who received Jesus’ message. The different ethnic
groups existed in a much wider environment, the Roman world. Although
the number of Romans from Italy was not great, they were nevertheless
present (Matt. 8:5). The Italians were the favored class. They had been
settled in this region after the great civil wars, especially after Augustus
had demobilized the army. These individuals provided the region with
Western ideas and contacts with Italy.
30 Daily Life in the New Testament
The New Testament makes reference to the West. Paul’s letters to the
Romans indicate an early Christian community in Rome, which may
have been composed not only of Jews but gentiles. Later this community
split from the Jewish population, probably during the reign of Claudius,
and became composed mainly of gentiles. The letters of Paul to the different
communities show the differences between the Jewish world and
the gentile.
The Greek world presents us with a different society and lands. The
New Testament mentions numerous Greek areas. The first areas visited
outside of Palestine were Syria, Cyprus, and Asia Minor.
The regions and peoples mentioned in the New Testament show the
great variety of life during the first century c.e. That an individual, such as
Paul, could travel from one region to the next meeting a variety of individuals
clearly indicates the vitality and complexity of Palestine. Without the
national restrictions of modern travel, individuals in a short journey could
encounter Roman, Greeks, Jews, Syrians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians,
and even Ethiopians of a variety of pagan and Jewish sects. All of these factors
made the daily life portrayed in the New Testament complex.